All my experience with piercing has been of result of piercing myself and my friends. The internet has always been a great resource of finding information about the pros and cons of self-piercing, but I feel as if there is no other way to go. I strongly believe that if you want to modify your body in this way, it is your resposibility to do it yourself. I have never had a piercing done professionally, but I have never had an infection or rejection of any of my piercings and had done it with virtually no pain at all.
At A Glance Author Kaya Marie Starchild Contact crippled_psilocybe@hotmail.com When N/A Artist Self-done Studio On a mountain, at the beach and in my home Location Sunshine Coast, B.C. Canada, and Tacna, Southern Peru
It has become a very religious experience for me and has hightened my appreciation for myself and the threasholds of my body. Piercing has both helped me come to understand how my body works in respect to energy flow and pain-reception, as well as given me the oportunity to reflect on my own image and be able to respect myself more and more everytime I modify. I try to use both natural materials for the piercing and the jewellery of my modifications. For piercing I use American and African porcupine quills, catus spines and bone needles that I carve myself. I have also always made my own jewellery carved from wood, bone, clay and stone.
The septum was the first piercing that ever tickled my fancy, and at the age of nine I knew that one day I would adorn myself as such. My family was traveling through the south of Guyana (East of Venezuela, north of Brasil) and through the north of Brasil on the tributaries of the Amazon and the Amazon basin. In a dugout canoe, my father mother and 7 year old brother travelled hundred of miles through dense, sweltering rainforest to remote research camps and the villages of the friends of my adopted Guyanese family. The experience of travelling as such was overwhelming, but I was in to experience much more than my parents had anticipated, and which led my to a life where I was not granted their acceptance.
In a particular village called Maruka close to the venezuelan border, I met a boatman named Benjih who had the most beautiful assortment of piercing I have ever seen. He wore parrot feathers in his ears' second holes and wooden plugs at about 1" in his first holes. He was a beautiful aboriginal person with rigid muscles that bulged with sinue and stretcehd under his thin skin and frame like his wide smile. His eyes were bright and knowing and overall, although he was short, he held himself with the definite pride of his herritage and blood.
His family were descendants of Yanomamo origins and he retained some of the upper-arm tattoos, piercings and the haircut of his culture, as well as a few modern styled tattoos he had travelled to Georgetown to aquire. He also wore the armbands of grass and feathers that they are reputable of the tribe. He had a septum piercing that he carved from the bone of a crocodile, with parrot feathers adorning the tips, which is what he told me, although I am not sure was true, but I will give him the credit.
After meeting this man of the jungle at the age of nine, I was ever impressioned. I knew that I would come to know the history of body modification, of the body arts of the tribal world and come to respect them. After self piercing my lip, tongue, nose, upper ear cartiladge in both ears and stretching my frist and second holes in both ears (3/4 inch and 2g) I knew that it was time for me to give myself a truly meaningful piercing. In summer 2004, I hiked up old Mount Elphinstone near in Roberts Creek, B.C. which is my home with enough food for several days, had I felt the need to stay. I brought only a wool blanket, my hunting knife and a first-aid kit with all my piercing equipment. I settled down beside the main river that runs the length of my town and spent about an hour preparing for my modification. I prayed and chanted and sang and burned sage.
I knew I was ready when I called like a raven and they answered me in particular way. There, beside the stream, I pierced my septum with 16g porcupine quill that I had sanded down to remove the barbs which I had lubricated with my own saliva.
I took me several minutes, but my heart was beating so slowly and my body was so relaxed I don't think I felt anything except the rush of my emotions. After I had put the quill all the way through, I then put through a 16g bone spike, but I had pierced the hole slightly too high and the pressure of the spike pushing on my nostrils was too painful to keep it in, so I carved myself an impromptu retainer out of a piece of cedar to go through the hole, but sit inside my nose. I was on such a body high that I had to stay on the mountain for the entire day and the night, and I hiked back down in the morning of the next day.
When I initially pierced my septum, I wasn't planning to stretch it, but to me, it just seemed like the logical thing to do, and in one week, I had carved myself bone spikes and pincers to gauge it from a 16g to a 4g. In another week, with absolutely no pain and no blood, except for a bit of discomfort when I rolled on to my face while sleeping. At 4g my piercing stayed until this year, when I moved to Tacna, Peru for a year or two. The history of the origins of this country are amazingly interesting and I feel as if I have become part Crillolla (Peruvian) and that it has always been a part of me. I recently stretched my septum up to a 2g with jewellery that I have carved from bones I find in the desert. This stretch hurt quite a bit, because I think that I was a bit too dehydrated to be calm and relaxed. This stretching was done in the heat of the afternoon on the top of a sandune overlooking the city, where I rode on my horse Charito in the morning. I was glad that she was there with me, as I know that her being there has strengthend her realtionship with me.
At the moment I am carving new jewellery and plugs to pierce and stretch my labret, as is inspired my the Inca culture of Ancient Peru, and its predecesors. I hope that this next piercing will be as meaningful as the last and that all will happen at the time and place as it is intended to be. I stronly encourage all those choosing to pierce themselves to do it themselves. It is much more rewarding and beneficial to the relationship with your modification and with your body. Your body is your temple, your shrine. Piercings are an outward expression of your true self, a form of art and when you know you've done them yourself, they truly become a piece of yourself and you become a piece of your art.
Love and Light to all the modified...